U.S. pot stores set to open on B.C.’s doorstep

Lower Mainland residents may not have to go far into the U.S. to partake of legal recreational marijuana that will be sold in retail stores in Washington State later this year.

No retail licenses have been issued yet, but there are three applicants in Blaine, one in Point Roberts and another further east of Sumas at Maple Falls on the Mount Baker Highway. (See interactive map above or here.)

They’re among 15 applicants vying for seven Whatcom County pot store licences expected to be determined in July, in addition to six other retail store licences reserved for Bellingham, which are being sought by 27 firms.

The state this month released results of lotteries it conducted to determine the order in which it will consider applications in each area.

Ranked first in the Whatcom lottery was the proposed Maple Falls outlet, dubbed Green Stop, on the way up to Mount Baker.

Only one Blaine proposal was ranked in the top seven – guaranteeing it will at least be considered – while two others in Blaine at Birch Bay and the Point Roberts application are ranked lower, meaning they’ll only have a shot if enough higher-ranked proposals are rejected.

They must pass multiple screening critieria and sites can’t be within 1,000 feet of schools or parks.

The proposed weed outlets in easy striking distance of the border have names like People of the Medicine, Cascade Herb Company and Green Smoke Shop.

“I expect there will be some tourism,” Abbotsford lawyer John Conroy said of Canadians heading south once the stores open.

Conroy is leading a legal challenge on behalf of medical marijuana users fighting Ottawa’s shift to a new model of industrial producers while outlawing licensed home-growing.

He predicts Washington’s move into legal sale of cannabis will help reduce drug-related crime in B.C.

Conroy believes the pending launch is already reducing demand in Washington for B.C. Bud even though legal pot isn’t yet for sale there.

“I’m told the market is collapsing,” Conroy said. “Illegal growers here are getting out of the business.”

He said that reflects a decline in pot prices that he’s been told have fallen from $1,500 to $2,000 per pound to as low as $900 a pound.

“The money isn’t there for them and therefore they close down,” Conroy said, predicting Washington’s policy change will eliminate more illegal grow ops in B.C. than police.

“It seems to me to be a very good thing,” he said. “It’s not costing us manpower, money on prosecution or going through the courts.”

Conroy also expects medical marijuana users will prevail in court against Health Canada – hundreds of additional challenges have been launched across the country – allowing them to continue to grow-their-own medicine and use it in whatever form they prefer, rather than be forced to buy just the dried leaves that new commercial producers will sell.

He said pot that used to go for $2,400 a pound is off at least 20 per cent to $1,800 to $2,000, but adds $900 would have to be “cheap outdoor stuff.”

“Prices are definitely going down and in the last 18 months they’ve been going down a lot,” he said. “The profit value per pound is much less for the same risk.”

The U.S. market is the main reason, Larsen said, noting that although stores aren’t yet open in Washington, they are in Colorado – which also legalized in a recent referendum – and there’s increasingly easy access to medical marijuana in many other states, including California.